BUX-MONT LEGION: Nor-Gwyn rallies late to knock out Pennridge

Trailing Pennridge 6-3 after seven innings of their Bux-Mont American Legion tournament contest, Kersey cut a run off the Hawks’ deficit with a leadoff home run over Memorial Park’s left field wall in the bottom of the eighth.

“As soon as Kersey hit that, just the boost of energy, you could feel it all around,” Nor-Gwyn first baseman Nate Heller said.

The blast woke up the Hawks’ offense in the final two innings. The league’s regular season champions plated another run in the eighth, then scored two more in the bottom of the ninth — Heller’s two-out single to left center bringing home Kersey for a 7-6 walk-off victory that also ended Pennridge’s season.

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“Technically speaking, these games don’t matter as much to us as they do to them cause we’re playing next week (in the Region 2 tournament),” Kersey said. “But we still want to go out there and try to win and play hard and do all the little things we can to get a (Bux-Mont) playoff title as well.”

Heller was 3-for-4 with a triple, two RBI and a run scored, while Kersey finished 2-for-5 with two RBI and three run scored for the Hawks, who never led until Heller’s walk-off hit. Matt Hoy had three RBIs and Alex Peterson scored twice.

“Throughout the season, any time we have a close ballgame, we believe in ourselves that we’re going to keep grinding and just hanging in there,” Nor-Gwyn coach Kevin Harris said. “Sticking with the process and the results will take care of themselves.”

Mike Kacergis was 2-for-4 with a triple, RBI and run scored while Jeff Roedell went 2-for-4 with two run scored for Pennridge, which left 15 runners on base.

“It’s so abrupt,” said Pennridge coach Rocky Wright of the season-ending defeat. “We’re cruising along, winning for nine innings, all of sudden, we’re done. We left 15 guys on base, we don’t have anybody to blame but ourselves, really.

Everybody tried to step up and did, I can’t single one guy out. (Tom) Nuneviller did a great job on the mound coming in for (Ryan) Denner when he twisted his knee on the mound, but I think maybe we were a little too tight. They had nothing to lose, we had everything to lose.”

After Kersey’s home run in the eighth, Heller tripled just inside the right-field foul line then scored to make it 6-5 on Hoy’s RBI sacrifice fly two batters later.

With two outs in the ninth, Anthony Cameron was hit by a pitch, went to second on a wild pitch, then scored to tie the game as Kersey singled up the middle.

“I’m just trying to put the ball in play. I didn’t want to go down with a strikeout to end the game,” Kersey said. “I want to put pressure on the defense. Again, I was fortunate enough to put it in a spot that they weren’t — up the middle — and Ant did a good job coming home.”

After Kersey stole second, Heller completed the Hawks’ comeback by belting a single to left single, with Kersey scoring easily.

“As soon as (Kersey) got on, I felt really confident,” Heller said. “I wasn’t trying to do much, just trying to get a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it.”

Andrew Kirsch earned the victory for Nor-Gwyn. Coming in with no outs and a man on first in the eighth, Kirsch did not give up a hit and walked two in two innings of work.

Nuneviller took the loss. He gave up four runs — all earned — on five hits, struck out four, walked one and hit one batter in 4 1/3 innings.

Sunday’s game was scoreless until the fourth. Kacergis led off the top of the frame with a triple to right center then came home on Roedell’s RBI single. A Ben Morina RBI sacrifice fly plated Roedell to make it 2-0. Nor-Gwyn, however, pulled level in the bottom of the inning as Matt Hoy’s single scored both Peterson and Kersey.

Pennridge regained the lead in the fifth on a Kacergis RBI single and Jake Gordon coming in on a wild pitch.

Nor-Gwyn cut the deficit to 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth on Heller’s RBI single. Post 255, however, added a run in the sixth when Gordon’s squeeze bunt brought home Ben Lippincott. In the seventh, Roedell scored on a wild pitch for a 6-3 Pennridge advantage.